Church Heritage Record 3665

The Church of St Lawrence has often been identified as the birthplace of St Teilo in the 5C. This association may have arisen because the cult of the saint was centred around nearby Penally, which is now regarded as his birth-place. The church stands in a small valley just above three ancient wells, thought to pre-date the church. The low narrow chancel arch of the present building suggests a C12 date. The nave, chancel and the S chapel are probably of the C13, and the first documentary reference is in 1291. There was originally a S door to the nave. Later porch and tower. Early C19 illustrations show the nave roof had been replaced with a low-height roof, leaving its original gable walls at E and W curiously upstanding like high parapets. The rounded projection in centre of the N wall of the nave, opposite to the original doorway and possibly originally a baptistry, was at this time used for a stove with its flue through the roof. A stove pipe is shown on an 1855 drawing. There was a restoration under the Rev G N Smith in 1870, with very little attempt to impose C19 ideas of correctness. The E door to the S chapel, now used as a vestry, is dated 1870. The nave was heavily buttressed and a new timber roof installed. The simple Tudor windows of the nave were retained. The mass concrete vault of the tower was probably part of this restoration. The font was moved to its present position in front of the recess of the supposed baptistry.

The proximity of the wells to the church suggests this is a clear instance of a Christian site chosen in the early medieval period to absorb an earlier pagan well-cult. The three wells form a small group, apparently originating in two natural springs. It was customary to drop bent pins into the water to mark the end of Lent as late as the 17C. The practice was called 'throwing Lent away'. The wells are thought to have healing properties and some attempts were reputedly made by fashionable physicians in the C19 to promote these on medical grounds for invalid visitors to Tenby.

Note: the above are extracts from the list descriptions of the church and wells which can be seen in the Sources & Information section at the bottom of the Core Details page.

St Lawrence is a low, narrow church with a large tower on the north side. The west porch has a round-arched doorway. There is a small chapel to the south of the chancel. The nave, chancel and south chapel are built in limestone rubble masonry with remains of render on the north face. The tower and the porch are of uncoursed hammer-dressed masonry. At the foot of the walls of the chancel and the south chapel there is a slight batter. Three large buttresses support the south wall of the nave. Behind the middle buttress there is a blocked door aperture with a pointed head. The roofs to the porch and the south chapel are of low pitch with thick slates. The slates of the porch have been rendered over. Elsewhere, the roof pitch is steep with tile ridges and sandstone gable copings on kneelers. At the north side of the nave there is a small circular projection, also slate-roofed. There are square-headed windows in the south wall of the nave, with stone surrounds and mullions. Two-light trefoil headed windows in the south wall of the chapel. Round-headed porch door.

The tower has a battlemented parapet on a corbel table. The stairs turret is at the north-east corner, lit by loops. The belfry has double square-headed lights facing north, east and west. It formerly had large square-headed windows with mullions to each storey but these are mostly blocked or reduced in area.

At the west of the churchyard is the ruin of a cottage which was formerly a school and was probably originally a priest's house. Stone churchyard wall with gate and stile. At the south corner of the churchyard are the wells, which are separately listed.

Reference: the above is an extract from the list description of the church which can be seen in the Sources & Information section at the bottom of the Core Details page.

Small vaulted chancel with a single-lancet east window. Small square window in the south wall with a single sedile and piscina. Against the chancel-arch wall are stone benches with encaustic tiles on the floor. Large pavement-tombstones at each side of the altar. To the south of the chancel is a chapel in which plain cross-ribs have been added to disguise a vault of conventional barrel form. Low and narrow chancel arch.

The nave has a C19 timber roof with two large tie beams. Oak pews with pulpit at the south-east corner. A high-level slit window in the west wall of the nave suggests there was once a gallery in the nave or a loft to the porch.

The north transept or tower base is roughly vaulted in mass rubble concrete with shuttering marks. In the east wall is an arched recess possibly for an altar and a niche. A large passage-squint joins the transept to the chancel. In the west wall is a tomb or an Easter Sepulchre. A circular staircase in the north-east corner leads to the tower. The 2nd and 3rd floors of the tower have been removed. There are sockets and projecting corbels for these missing floors. The 3rd storey was used as a dovecote: there are four rows of seven nesting holes. The 4th storey has a modern belfry floor.

The porch contains benches at each side. Over the door is a statue niche and a small high-level light into the nave. There is a water stoup in the south-east corner.

Note: the above is an extract from the list description of the church which can be seen in the Sources & Information section at the bottom of the Core Details page.